I’d like again to visit these sunny places, between two oceans… but this time, with Ani! :-)
Maybe, one day?…
[Photos are from 2004/Oct/28]
“Are you happy?”
My first article (tutorial) at Adobe Devnet
While me and Ani take some short rest on the sea — just a couple of days around the Spirit of Burgas music festival, Faith No More, and our travel to Bourgas and Byala — my first ever tutorial went live at Adobe Developer Connection.
The ones who know, know, what is Adobe Devnet, and for those who don’t I’ll quickly mention that it’s a big honour for me that my modest work about Adobe Fireworks CS4 and its CSS Export options are now in the section Adobe > Devnet > Fireworks! :-)
Of course, the whole extended tutorial is far from being perfect — a lot of things I could have said in a better and shorter way; a lot of other things I forget to mention at all, and probably, I have some mistakes here and there, but I would be glad if the fruits of my 100+ h work could be useful to more than one Web/graphic designer…
That’s it, for now — my style is a bit telegraphic, but I have a whole day of swimming and lying on the beach tomorrow, so I better get some sleep now! :-)
PS And that’s the direct link to my Fireworks tutorial:)
Michael Jackson – The King Of Stars
(I am a bit late with this post, but the draft was lying around for quite some time… I just did’t find the words. I think that even now, I didn’t find them — but I prefer to say them, as they are, than to remain silent…)
A legend was gone on June 25th 2009. Michael Jackson.
Some have found a good word or two, for him.
Others, have drawn wallpapers, or some drawings, to remember him…
Leading medias, like CNN, dedicated special page to Michael…
The day he was gone, YouTube, Amazon and a lot of other “Top 100” websites, mentioned this on their front pages…
And my words… I can’t find them. I am sad. But not because Michael won’t have concerts in London this summer, but because some geniuses have so hard life, and can’t flee from Fate.
Michael Jackson was rejected by many, but he will be remembered, by many.
Not a long ago, we watched again Moonwalker. I forgot this movie. It’s good.
It is naïve, at some moments, but funny, and Michael dances incredibly, the music is good — what more a man can wish? ;-)
Some scenes in it are unforgettable. “Smooth Criminal” in the Club 30’s, for example. Or the dance with the Hare:)
I wrote earlier this year, that Michael will have concerts in London (Summer 2009). But Michael is no more, and CNN just released a video from one of his last rehearsals:
…In my teenage years, I was big fan of his music, but even more, of his dance. There are a lot of imitators of his style. Are there better dancers than him? Yes. But Michael, he was unique, he had magnetism no other dancer maybe ever had…
Moon walk? O, yes, it’s not his invention…
Here are a few names, some of them I never heard before:
Fred Astaire, Bill Bailey, Buck and Bubbles, Cab Calloway, Clarck Brothers, Sammy Davis Jr., Daniel L. Haynes, Rubberneck Holmes, Patterson & Jackson, Eleanor Powell, Bill Robinson, “Three Chefs”, “Tip, Tap and Toe”, Earl Snakehips Tucker… They are his predecessors. And here’s a historical video:
But, the Moon Walk, Michael could do it like anynone else! :-)
Once, I remember I saw a video, he was doing the moon walk sideways in it! It was amazing to watch…
Michael Jackson was a legend, a star, while he was alive, but now I believe he is a Star in the Sky…
I can’t find the right words to express what I feel.
Rest in Peace, Michael! I bow in front of you and your talent! That’s all I can say…
And I hope, your soul have found Peace…
A Creative Sunday: 3 imitations (Fireworks/Flash)
Last Sunday, it was a ‘Creative Sunday’. It turned so that I’ve spent almost the whole day, drawing in Fireworks and Flash.
It has all started like this…
The Rabbit and the Sewing Machine
First, my wonderful wife Ani found a blog with a nice header and mentioned that it is probably very difficult to make such a drawing or vector composition.
That was a reason strong enough for me to fire up Fireworks and start re-drawing this header image right away. It was a challenge! :-)
3 or 4 hours later, my imitation #1 was ready:
(click for larger size)
Compare it with the original that I was trying to reproduce:
(click for larger size)
You can see that the two images are almost identical, with the exception of a few details — for example, I’ve drawn a rabbit with long ears instead of a doll with no face expression (I like the rabbit more, actually). Also, you can notice that some other small details are not re-created in exactly the same manner, but this is intentional — I wanted to make a very similar image in Fireworks, not a 100% exact copy.
Everything you see is just vectors and a few effects added here and there.
I do not know how was the original created (I tried to contact the author of the blog, but did not receive a reply to my e-mail) — maybe it’s Illustrator or Photoshop — but I think I have demonstrated that Fireworks is powerful enough to make quite complicated vector imitations. That’s the reason why I love Fireworks so much — it is powerful enough to do 90% of my graphic design work, and yet, very easy and intuitive to use! :-)
The City of Darkness
Next, I switched to Flash, and tried to recreate a nice drawing, made by Ani on paper, a few days ago.
Here’s my first try with a tablet (this is imitation #2):
(click for larger size)
I used a Wacom tablet and Adobe Flash; when the drawing was ready, I exported the image and then used Fireworks again, for the final version you see.
It took me maybe 2 hours to make the drawing — I think the results are OK for a first try with a tablet and Flash:)
Here’s the original image that I was trying to re-draw:
(click for larger size)
Again, there are some differences between the two images, but they are minor…
The solar eclipse & the statue of Mahatma Ghandi
The same day, I also had the idea to re-create a real photograph, taken during the last solar eclipse (on it, you could see the sun against the statue of Mahatma Ghandi, on a very dark sky).
Unfortunately, the day was too short for this purpose, but after two days, I went back to this idea of mine, and so my third imitation was born.
Here’s imitation #3 — what you see is Adobe Fireworks again, only vectors and a couple of live effects:
(click for larger size)
And here’s the original, so that you can make the comparison:
(click for larger size)
This was quite a quick job, maybe less than an hour. I was not trying to make a 100% perfect copy, but rather check if I can quickly make a vector re-drawing of this photo. The results look quite OK to me;-)
Adobe Fireworks
I love using Fireworks.
“Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal.”
Good artists copy, great artists use Fireworks.
—Pablo Picasso
—Michel
Am I a great artist? Sure no! :-)
But it’s fun for me to try to imitate some other people’s work, especially using Fireworks, my favourite graphic design editor of all time! :-)
And what still continues to amaze me is how good Fireworks can be, both with vectors and bitmap editing… and how underrated it continues to be, for Adobe and for many design professionals… (I hope this will change some day!)
…Meanwhile, I’ll continue to copy imitate in Fireworks, just like I did last Sunday, when the mood comes. It’s just too much fun! :)))
J. J. Cale, Sensitive Kind, and a sunny Saturday afternoon
Saturday, early afternoon.
It’s sunny outside.
The second cup of coffee is preparing (it’s my favourite Jacobs Monarch Classic), J.J. Cale’s Sensitive Kind is quietly playing on the Cambridge Soundworks 250D/S700, I lazily read friends’ blogs… That’s a good start of the day! :-)
[Flash player with embedded audio of JJ Cale, “Sensitive Kind”.]
J. J. Cale: Sensitive Kind
Don’t take her for granted, she has a hard time,
Don’t misunderstand her or play with her mind.Treat her so gently, it will pay you in time,
You’ve got to know she’s the sensitive kind.Tell her you love her, each and every night
And you will discover she will treat you right.If you believe, I know you will find
There ain’t nothing like the sensitive kind.She gets lonely waiting for you,
You are the only thing to help her through.Don’t take her for granted, she has a hard time,
You’ve got to know she’s the sensitive kind.
Just a few more tracks with JJ, a bit more coffee with milk, and then I may switch to a more active mode, but for now, I like it this way! :-)
[Flash player with embedded audio of JJ Cale, “Don’t cry sister”.]
[Flash player with embedded audio of JJ Cale & Eric Clapton, “Three Little Girls”.]
The sun is smiling at me, I am smiling at the sun… :)
As to JJ Cale — he’s a discovery of Ani and batpep — he was a teacher of Eric Clapton, and I can say only this — great music! In fact, I wonder, how did he not become more famous than Eric C.?;-) (You can find more of J.J.’s recordings on youtube.com…)
Firefox 3.0/3.5 doesn’t warn when closing multiple tabs (a solution)
If you have this problem:
1) You have set the option in Mozilla Firefox to open all of your tabs automatically, each time the browser starts,
2) You do not see the warning “You are about to close n tabs. Are you sure you want to continue?” when you try to close the Firefox window (intentionally or by accident), and
3) You do not want Firefox 3.0 to ask you each time you close it, if you like to save or not save your browsing session, but save the session automatically,
…then you can jump straight to the solution!
But if you are curious about the details, you may continue to read below! :-)
A short introduction
Firefox 3 is by far the best browser I know!
It is secure, it supports Web standards and CSS 2.1 (and now, CSS 3, too!), it is fun to use, it has a built-in Session Saver (when you close Firefox with all of your opened tabs, it can re-open them next time you start it), and there are a variety of very useful add-ons (extensions) made for it, which extend its functionality and make it even better!
(NOTE: Firefox 3.5 was released on June 30th, 2009, but I will wait maybe a couple of more weeks, before upgrading to it, because still some very useful add-ons for Firefox 3.0 are not yet upgraded to be compatible with version 3.5.)
When I made the switch from Firefox 2.0 to Firefox 3.0, one thing puzzled me, though: the standard warning, when you close a Firefox window with more than 2 tabs open — it has disappeared… well, in a way, at least!
Firefox 2.0 » Firefox 3.0
As you (probably) know, Firefox can automatically save your browsing session, when you close it. This means, when you close the Firefox window, all tabs that you have open inside it, will be re-opened next time you start it again. This is controlled via an option, found in Tools > Options > Main > Startup: “When Firefox starts: Show my windows & tabs from last time” [screenshot].
So, in Options, if you select “When Firefox starts: Show my windows & tabs from last time”, you can safely close Firefox, and next time it starts, it will restore your browsing session — for this to work, though, you must have all tabs opened inside one window, or else, only the last window that you have closed will have its tabs re-opened on next startup.
You can also decide if you want your tabs re-opened, each time you close the Firefox window. In this case, you can de-select “When Firefox starts: Show my windows & tabs from last time” and instead, choose “Show a blank page”. Then Firefox 3 will ask each time you try to close it, what do you prefer: your session saved, or not.
But if you’re like me, then you may prefer all opened tabs to be saved automatically, and without any questions upon closing Firefox. In this case, you will select “When Firefox starts: Show my windows & tabs from last time” in Options and the dialog “Save and Quit?”, “Quit?”, “Cancel?” will not be shown when you close the Firefox window.
There’s one problem, though.
Firefox 3.0 will not warn you when you close a window with multiple tabs!
Well, this is not exactly true. It will not warn you, when several conditions are met:
1) In Tools > Options > Main > Startup, you must specify the option “When Firefox starts: Show my windows & tabs from last time” (this is pretty common, especially for people who upgraded from Firefox 1.5/2.0 > 3.0, because most users prefer to re-open all tabs automatically, when they start Firefox), and…
2) You are closing the last open window of Firefox. (I prefer have all of my tabs opened inside one window — thus, when I close Firefox, all my tabs inside this window will be re-opened. But let’s suppose, you have two windows open, inside each window there are several tabs. When you try to close the first window, Firefox will warn you. When you try to close the second one, it will not warn you.)
The strangest thing is that the warning “You are about to close n tabs. Are you sure you want to continue?” will not appear, in this case, no matter what is the setting that you have specified in Tools > Options > Tabs > “Warn me when closing multiple tabs” [screenshot]!
In Firefox 2.0, when you try to close a window with multiple tabs open, and if you have checked the option in Tools > Options > Tabs > “Warn me when closing multiple tabs”, Firefox will always warn you, before you close the window, no matter if the window you are about to close is the last (and only one), or if you have set the option in Tools > Options > Main > Startup: “When Firefox starts: Show my windows & tabs from last time”.
In Firefox 3.0, when you try to close a window with multiple tabs open, and if you have checked the option in Tools > Options > Tabs > “Warn me when closing multiple tabs”, Firefox will warn you, before you close the window, only if you have specified “Open my home page” or “Open a blank page” in Tools > Options > Main > When Firefox starts (it will present you with the dialog “Save & Quit”, “Quit”, “Cancel”)… But if you have specified there “When Firefox starts: Show my windows & tabs from last time”, then Firefox will not warn you, but will silently close all tabs!
And this is intentional (as of Firefox version 3.0), because, as far as I know, there were several bugs logged in this regard (including bug 419009, “Warning if closing multiple tabs is not working”), but the functionality remained the same! If the user has specified “When Firefox starts: Show my windows & tabs from last time”, then, when closing Firefox, all of his tabs will be automatically restored, and there’s no data loss. But the user might close Firefox by accident, and in this case, there’s no way for him to be warned! And the option “Warn me when closing multiple tabs” was supposed (in Firefox 2.0) to fix just that: accidental closing of all of your opened tabs! But it’s gone in Firefox 3.0: now you can’t be warned before you close Firefox, if you have specified all of your tabs to be restored automatically, when Firefox starts!
Some claim that there’s an easy “fix” for this: The user is supposed to select “Show my home page” or “Show a blank page” in Tools > Options > Main > Startup, but in this case, Firefox will ask each time it is closed, if you want or do not want to save all of your tabs! (And this is something I don’t need — I want Firefox to open all of my tabs automatically, without asking!) Also, in this case, you might also accidentally click the wrong choice and have your session deleted (if you select “Quit” instead of “Save and Quit”).
I have searched for a true workaround for a long time. I wanted:
1) Firefox to automatically save all of my tabs & re-open them next time it starts, inside one window, and
2) I wanted to be warned, when I try to close the Firefox window.
I think I have found a very good (almost perfect)…
Solution to the problem
You will need to install one Firefox add-on first — “Tab Mix Plus”; it currently works for Firefox 3.0/3.5, and can be downloaded from here:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1122
I will also recommend you to install the “Session Manager” addon, which works for FF 3.0/3.5:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2324
(Session Manager will complement the other add-on pretty well, but this step is not required.)
In Tab Mix Plus, there’s an option which can restore the default behaviour of Firefox, when you try to close it!
To activate it in Firefox, go to Tools > Tab Mix Plus Options > Events > Tab Closing > “Warn me when closing multiple tabs”. If you check this option, then Firefox 3 will act as before: If you have multiple tabs open, and try to close the Firefox window, it’ll show you the standard warning “You are about to close n tabs. Are you sure you want to continue?”.
And you’ll see the warning, even if in Tools > Options > Main > Startup: “When Firefox starts: Show my windows & tabs from last time” is set!
That’s it! :-)
Final notes
— In Firefox options, I have set Firefox to remember my opened tabs session automatically, when I close Firefox. I open all tabs inside one window, so for me this option works very well: If I try to close the window with all opened tabs, Firefox now gives me a warning, as I expect. If I try to close the window by accident, I can click on ‘Cancel’ and if I really want to close it, then I select ‘Close Tabs’ and next time Firefox opens, all of my tabs are restored!
— For added “extra security”, I have also installed Session Manager add-on (see download link above). So in the rare case that I will close one Firefox window with some tabs open and then will see that in the background, there was one more window open (this may happen sometimes), I can still recover my session with all opened tabs, using the Session Manager — I can simply revert then to a previous backup session, using Tools > Session Manager > Backup Sessions [screenshot].
— I have tested this on Windows XP SP3, Firefox 3.0.12 and Tab Mix Plus 0.3.7.3, and it works as described. Only remember that Firefox will not give you a warning, if you try to close it using File > Exit (in this case it will silently close, but still reopen all of your tabs next time, if you have specified this in Options). But if you try to close Firefox window using the standard Windows shorcut (Alt+F4) or if you click on the close button on its window (top right), the warning will appear.
— I do not know what is the default behaviour of Firefox 3.5, when closing (and I did not test Tab Mix Plus with FF 3.5.x, too). I may update this article in the future, if needed. A reader just confirmed that the bug exists in Firefox 3.5.x, too (thanks, iffi!:-) and that the latest version of Tab Mix Plus fixes the bug in FF 3.5, as it does in FF 3.0. That’s good to know!
— Tab Mix Plus add-on has much more options, but I needed just the warning on closing multiple tabs; feel free to explore all of its other features, though! :-)
I hope this information will be useful to other Firefox users, too!
Also, feel free to leave any comments and notes you may have — I always appreciate constructive feedback and discussion!
UPDATE (2009/08/08): I can confirm that this fix works with latest Firefox 3 (3.0.13) and Firefox 3.5 (3.5.2).
Grass and Sun…
One of my favourite things to shoot, during Summer…
The photo is from July 13th, near Borissov’s Garden… we were on some sort of photowalk, but no shot of mine turned out to be good, with the exception of this one, maybe… :)
(Here’s a variant, with a bit of sharpening applied…)
